A pair of bright grey eyes snapped open and the first thing that came into view was the white ceiling that hung above him.
"I knew drinking that much was a bad idea," he muttered, placing a hand on his forehead, "especially for my first time."
He lay there for a few seconds longer, staring blankly upward as the dull throb slowly faded.
His room was a bit too quiet, unlike what he expected, or rather, what he was used to every morning.
All he could hear was the soft hum of electricity and the faint sound of birds somewhere outside.
…Birds?
Noah frowned, he was sure that birds were rarely, if ever, seen or heard around this area, after all, all the trees around had been cut down and replaced with expensive modern houses.
The closest place you'd hear birds was about a mile away.
He turned his head slightly and confirmed that, yes, he was very much in his own room.
So why was he hearing birds chirping and why the hell did his body feel… off?
"Maybe this is how hangover works?" He muttered as he sat up slowly, expecting dizziness or nausea.
But neither came.
Instead, his head felt oddly clear, too clear for someone who had drunk till he blacked out the previous night.
His thoughts were also clear and his sense were a lot sharper than he remembered, it almost felt like he had gotten the greatest rest of his life.
Swinging his legs off the bed, the boy, Noah, stood up and stretched. Again, he noted how weirdly energetic he felt, which was strange for someone who spent half the night drinking.
He glanced at the digital clock on his nightstand.
6:12 AM.
"…I don't wake up at six," he said flatly.
Normally, getting out of bed before seven-thirty required either a natural disaster or the threat of academic ruin.
Yet here he was, wide awake with his body completely cooperative and not craving a few more minutes of sleep.
He was really starting to wonder if this was the alcohol's doing .
Noah just shrugged it off in the end and walked toward the bathroom.
The mirror greeted him with the same familiar reflection: messy dark hair with faint bags under his eyes, and a face that was…. Well, one he had got used to.
He wasn't ugly, but you wouldn't say he was handsome enough to turn heads either.
He was just ordinary….at least, to him anyway.
He splashed water on his face and looked up again, pausing.
For just a split second, he thought his grey eyes held a red glow, but the moment he blinked again, it was gone.
"Guess I really shouldn't drink again," he muttered.
After getting dressed, Noah grabbed his bag and headed downstairs. His parents were already gone to their early shifts, like always.
A note sat on the counter, reminding him to eat breakfast and lock the door.
He ignored the first part and did the second.
The walk to school was uneventful as always, but one thing Noah did note was the fact that the early morning sun suddenly felt uncomfortable on his skin.
It felt like needles were prickling him, though it didn't hurt much, it felt uncomfortable. But, again, he just blamed it on the alcohol he had the previous night.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and quickened his pace, moving through the familiar streets with a faint scowl on his face.
By the time he reached the school gates, relief washed over him as the shadow of the building swallowed him whole.
"…Okay, that's weird," he muttered.
The moment he stepped fully into the shade, the sensation vanished as if it was never there in the first place.
Noah paused for half a second, then shook his head and continued inside.
The hallway was already crowded, filled with the sound of lockers slamming shut and students talking over one another.
Normally, it was just background noise to him, something he tuned out without effort.
Today, it wasn't.
Every sound felt louder than he remembered them being.
He could hear laughter from the far end of the corridor, the scrape of shoes against tile, even the faint click of someone nervously tapping their pen inside a classroom.
His jaw tightened.
When did his hearing get this good?
He passed by a group of students and abruptly stopped when a scent suddenly hit him.
It was warm, metallic and faintly sweet.
Noah's stomach suddenly let out a growl..
He turned slowly, eyes scanning the hallway until they landed on a girl leaning against her locker, a thin line of red just barely visible at the edge of her finger where she'd gotten a paper cut.
He noticed that she was looking directly at him with a small smile on her face whilst her finger continued bleeding and Noah felt his throat immediately go dry.
"…What the hell?" he whispered.
His heart began to beat faster and he suddenly felt his mouth start to water and a thought slowly formed in his mind.
Hungry.
The thought made him recoil.
Noah took a sharp step back, breaking eye contact and forcing himself to breathe normally.
"That's it," he muttered to himself, "I'm officially losing it."
He quickly turned around and walked towards his classroom, completely sure that something bad would happen if he continued staring at her.
He quickly reached his classroom and found his seat, next to his friend, Ethan, who let out a low, pained groan as Noah sat down.
"Kill me," he muttered without lifting his head. "Or better yet, rewind time to yesterday and stop me from accepting that last drink."
Noah blinked, momentarily grateful for the normalcy of the complaint.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Ethan cracked one bloodshot eye open and squinted at him, "Okay? Don't tell me you're fine. You drank just as much as I did."
That was the weird part, wasn't he supposed to be as miserable as his friend currently was?
"I mean," he said carefully, "I thought I'd feel worse."
Ethan let out a weak snort,"Yeah? Give it time. Hangovers are sneaky like that."
He shifted, immediately regretting it as he hissed through his teeth and clutched his head.
"My skull feels like it's being used as a drum," Ethan continued. "Lights are too bright, sounds are too loud, it's torture."
Noah was silent for a long while before asking, "did anything strange happen while we were drinking?"
"I dunno man," Ethan let out weakly, "we all drank and went our separate ways, and I'm paying the price for suggesting it."
"I see," Noah nodded before turning to the front just as the teacher walked in.
One thing he was definitely sure of was the fact that something happened to him last night, but he didn't know what.
But as fate would have it, he would soon be reminded of the previous night's events, one that would completely change his life.